left the stifling precincts of Hephzibah's dwelling
to find out that of the Greek. Terrible were the glare and heat of the
noonday sun, and long appeared the distance to be traversed, yet
Hadassah did not even slacken her steps till she approached the
gymnasium erected by the renegade high-priest Jason. With difficulty
she made her way through crowds of Syrians and others hastening to the
place of amusement.

Hadassah groaned, but it was not from weariness; she turned away her
eyes from the building which had been to so many of her people as the
gate of perdition, and the merry voices of the pleasure-seekers sounded
sadder to her ears than a wail uttered over the dead. Precious souls
had been murdered in that gymnasium; the Hebrew mother thought of her
own lost son!

Almost dropping from fatigue, Hadassah reached at last the place which
Hephzibah had described. It was an inn of the better sort, kept by an
Athenian named Cimon, who had established himself in Jerusalem.
Hadassah had no difficulty in obtaining an interview with the host, who
received her with the courtesy befitting a citizen of one of the most
polished cities then to be found in the world. Cimon offered the lady
a seat under the shadow of the massive gateway leading into his
courtyard.

"Dwells the Lord Lycidas here?" asked Hadassah faintly. She could
hardly speak; her tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of her mouth from
heat, fatigue, and excitement.

"The Lord Lycidas left this place yesterday lady," said the Greek.

"Whither has he gone?" gasped Hadassah.

"I know not--he told me not whither," answered Cimon, surveying his
questioner with compassion and curiosity. "Months have elapsed since
the Athenian lord, after honouring this roof by his sojourn under it,
suddenly disappeared. Search was made for him in vain. I feared that
evil had happened to my guest, and as time rolled on and brought no
tidings, I sent word to his friends in Athens, asking what should be
done with property left under my charge by him who, as I deemed, had
met an untimely end. Ere the answer arrived, the Lord Lycidas himself
appeared at my door, but in evil plight, weak in body and troubled in
mind. He would give no account of the past; he said not where he had
sojourned; and yester-morn, though scarcely strong enough to keep the
saddle, he mounted his horse, and rode off--I know not whither; nor
said he when he would return. If the lady be a friend of the Lor